The Merger of Non-High Front Vowels in Korean: Mission Accomplished

1. The Merger of Non-High Front Vowels in Korean:Mission Accomplished David J. Silva & Wenhua JinThe University of Texas at Arlington djsilva@uta.edu 2008 Meeting of theInternational Circle of Korean Linguistics Binghamton University / Cornell University26-29 June 2008

2. 게 key vs. 개kay What’s Wrong with this Picture? 멍멍!

3. Evidence of the Front Vowel Merger • KFL • *게가 “멍멍”라고 하지? • *궨찮아요! (*궨차나요!) • *언재 시작뒐까? • Korean as L1 • “어이 에” vs.“아이 애” • Korean ESL • “English has five front vowels: … • [i] • [ι] • [e] • [ε] • [æ].”

4. Outline of the Talk • Background • Methodology • Data • Discussion • Conclusion • The merger of 애 ay and 에 ey is complete … • … despite the fact that there are speakers who can differentiate the two. • The merger is another way in which Modern Seoul Korean differentiates itself from other dialects.

5. Background: 애 ay ~ 에 ey • “throughout much of southern Korea … ay is distinguished from ey poorly, if at all. …” Martin 1992:25 • “there is no phonemic distinction between [the two] in southern dialects…” Sohn 1999:156 • “the distinction between /ay/ and /ey/ is considered an earmark of standard, Seoul speech,” but … “the distinction has been lost throughout much of the country south of Seoul,” thereby relegating differentiationto “old-time natives of the city.” Lee & Ramsey 2000:64 • “the mid front vowel merger … display[s] a significant age variation but no significant variations in sex, class or style.” Hong 1988

6. The Research Question • Is the merger of 애 ay and 에 ey complete? • To what extent do we still find age-based variation when it comes to differentiating between 애 ay and 에 ey?

7. Data Collection 1 • 63 participants from a larger study (n=83) • Recorded in/around Seoul • Fall 2004 • Demographic Questionnaire • year of birth • education • etc. • Consent (per IRB policies)

8. Data Collection 2 • Controlled reading of pre-determined, randomly sequenced sentences on cards • Five cycles (card shuffled each time) • Five minimal pairs: • 개 ‘dog’ vs.게 ‘crab’ • 내 ‘my’ vs.네 ‘your’ • 배 ‘boat’ vs.베 ‘hemp cloth’ • 태 ‘form/figure’ vs.테 ‘hoop’ • 샘 ‘spring/well’ vs.셈 ‘calculation’ • Frame: “이건 ______(이)라고 하죠.” • n = 2506 tokens

9. F2 F1 i a u Data Measurement • Visual assessment of thevocalic steady state • Two measurements in Praat • Frequency of the First Formant (F1) • higher F1 = lower vowel • lower F1 = higher vowel • Frequency of the Second Formant (F2) • higher F2 = more front • lower F2 = more back

10. Reference: American English i u ι e ε æ a

11. Widespread Merger of 애 and 에 • Most speakers present no statistically significant differences in the mean values of F1 and F2 for 애 ay and 에 ey(α=0.95)

12. Height Merger: ΔF1ay-ey ≈ 0 • 78% present no statistically significant differences in the mean values of F1 for 애 ay and 에 ey(α=0.95) • ΔF1ay-ey = Mean F1ay – Mean F1ey ≈0

13. Undifferentiated ay ~ ey

14. Differentiated ay~ey: Females

15. Differentiated ay~ey: Males

16. ΔF1ay-ey: No Age-Based Differences p = 0.15, R2 = 0.034

17. No Other Sociolinguistic Differences • Sex • Educational Attainment • Occupation • Father’s Education • Father’s Occupation • Speech Training • Importance of Clear Speech • Self-Assessment of Clarity “Shibboleth”

18. Of the Residual Variation … … what category would it fall under (à la Labov)? • Indicator? • Perhaps… • no age stratification but… • no apparent social stratification and… • stylistic variation (none for most speakers) • Marker? • Not likely. • No social variation • No overt social interpretation • Stereotype? • No. Not stigmatized. “Anti-Stereotype” or “Shibboleth”?

19. Other Dialects of Korean • ay and ey remain distinct… • among Korean speakers from Jilin Province living in Beijing (Silva & Jin 2006) • among Korean speakers living in Shenyang, Liaoning Province (Jin 2008) • elsewhere? • Further sociolinguistic research is merited, as casual perceptions may be clouded by the orthography

20. Implications • Pedagogy: E  K, K  E Many sources persist in claiming that 애ay and 에ey are distinct: “False Positive Transfer” • One KFL website: • “tense mid front unrounded 'ㅔ' is similar to English 'e'” • “open low front unrounded 'ㅐ' is similar to English 'æ'” • EFL resources in Korea encourage students to equate • English [æ] with Korean 애 • English [ε] with Korean 에 • Pronunciation Guide of the 어린이 영어 그림 사전 (Children's English Picture Dictionary), p. 12: • æ 애 bag [bæg 백] • e 에 egg [eg 에그]

21. Implications 2 Transliteration as Tradition [i] peen 피인 [ι] pin 핀 [e] pane 페인 [ε] pen 펜 [æ] pan 팬 Decisions are often based on presuppositions regarding English orthography, and perhaps not on English pronunciation; prescriptive norms. Q: How would Korean 1st and 2nd graders render similar English words in han’geul?

22. Conclusions • The merger of 애 ay and 에 ey appears to be complete in this community • There are, however, speakers who can differentiate – shibboleth • Future Research: Stylistic Variation • Do those who differentiate ay and ey in card-reading do so in casual speech? • The merger may be specific to Seoul Korean, marking SK as distinct from other dialects

23. 감사합니다 • Korea Foundation • Kyung Hee University, Division of English • The University of Texas at Arlington,Faculty Development Leave Program • “Viewers Like You” djsilva@uta.edu